Law Commission Chairman against Supreme Court benches in different cities

Attending a function at the Bombay High Court, Chairman of Law Commission of India has reportedly said that “more benches would not serve any purpose”.

He was speaking at a debate organized by Advocate Association of Western India (AAWI) on “Should there be SC benches in various parts of the country?”

Agreeing with the point that the Supreme Court is currently overloaded with cases, he went on to say that it would be wrong to imagine that more benches will decrease the number of cases. He also said that it would be without any purpose.

Substantiating his point with facts, J. AP Shah (Retd.) submitted that last year 63,000 cases were filed in the Apex Court. This year, the number has already crossed 65,000. He also highlighted that the number of tax and commercial cases has increased while number of petitions under Art. 32 has fallen.

J. Shah reportedly said, "Today the Supreme Court is overloaded," he said, adding that some 63,000 cases were filed last year and 65,000 this year. Creation of benches presumes that number of cases will go down but that is not the case.”

The debate was organized after a lawyers’ association had written to the Union Law Ministry asking that a Supreme Court Bench be set up in Mumbai. The letter had stated that the Constitution Bench of the Court should stay in Delhi but regional benches should be established to hear the appeal cases from high courts. The association had argued that it would save litigants valuable time and money.

The demand for regional benches of the Supreme Court has been in existence for some time, there was also a PIL for the establishment for National Court of Appeal, more can be read here.